A letter requesting reimbursement of travel expenses, lodging, and meals for the bill is a letter that is written by an employee and is addressed to the employer or the relevant department of an organization. This letter is intended to make a reimbursement request for the official expenses for which the employee has paid out of his own pocket.
Employees often incur expenses for and during official work, trips, and meetings. Usually, they pay for those expenses themselves, and later ask their companies to pay them back. These expenses could include:
- Fuel expenses.
- Costs of the rented cars.
- Money paid for the meals.
- Expenses of the venue of the meetings.
- Money paid for staying in a hotel.
- Toll charges, etc.
Companies have policies for reimbursing different types of expenses. Sometimes, the same policy is applicable to all the employees, while at other times, the reimbursement policy varies from contract to contract. As the employees can claim their money from the companies, they need to fulfill the company requirements beforehand, such as:
- Insert the information in the forms in the database.
- Provide all the bills and evidence.
- A letter to request for the reimbursement.
Usually, this letter provides a total or gist of expenses. The detailed bills are attached separately with this letter. Yet, it can contain varying information and can have varying lengths. However, generally, the following details are included in such types of letters:
- Official details of the employer.
- Official details of the employee.
- Request for the reimbursement of incurred expenses.
- Reference to the employee’s contractual terms or company policies.
- State details of the expenses.
- Mention attached documents, receipts, or bills, etc.
- Mention that the company requirements have been fulfilled, e.g., filling in the forms in the data base, attaching the stamped bills, etc.
- Show hope of acceptance.
- Show cooperation for providing any missing document or information.
- Salutation, signature, and stamp.
When this letter is received by the relevant department, it analyzes it for the authenticity of the bills. If all the expenses fall under the category of reimbursable expenses, the department would accept the request, and release the employee payment as per the payment schedule.
This assessment of the provided evidence is essential because the employees may submit counterfeited or fake bills and try to claim more money than the amount that has actually been incurred. However, in such a situation, if an employee gets caught, the company takes strict action to the extent of termination.
Some companies even take legal actions and take the employee to the court. Therefore, it is always advisable that the employees should be fair toward their employers and only request for the reimbursement of the actual valid expenses.
Sample letter
Dear Mr. David,
This letter is being written to request you to make the reimbursements of my official visits during the last month of January 20XX.
Last month, there were five official visits to the ABC area. As per my contract, all the related expenses will be covered by the company. The totals of each type of expense of these visits are:
- Fuel expenses to and fro including Uber expenses: $[X]
- Toll expenses: $[Y]
- Hotel expenses: $[Z]
- Meals expenses: $[ABC]
- Internet expenses: $[XYZ]
I am attaching all the individual receipts and bills with this letter. In addition, I have filled the details in the company’s database as well.
Kindly, reimburse these expenses soon. If you find any documents to be missing, please let me know.
Thank you.
Regards,
Samantha William.
File: Word (.docx) 2007+ and iPad
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